WHAT IS PH and WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

PH is a measure of acidity or alkalinity of a liquid. It is measured on a scale of 0-14; from 7 down to 0 is becoming progressively more acid. From 7 up to 14 is becoming progressively more alkaline. Battery acid in your car battery has a PH of less than 1 and will burn a hole right through your skin. Ammonia has a PH of 9 and is very alkaline in PH. It is also very caustic to the skin.

Science tells us that our bodies are 70 to 80% water. The other 30% is made of minerals and carbon compounds. Because we are mostly fluids, we must be slightly alkaline in PH to be healthy. Our bodies are alkaline by design and produce acid by function of the cells. Our blood and cellular fluid, for example, has a PH of about 7.45. Our bodies function best at this PH level. If the PH of the blood rises or falls even a few tenths of a degree, it can be life threatening. This is why we need to monitor our body PH very closely, because it has such profound effect on our health!

There are three things that most strongly affect our PH: what we think, what we eat and what we drink. We will address thoughts in another section. What we all need to understand is everything ingested affects our PH in some way. Foods, liquids, even drugs change our PH. Proteins and many sugar laden foods produce acid in the body. When you eat a steak for example, it generates acid that the body must deal with to stay healthy. On the other side of the spectrum, vegetables and most fruits produce alkaline conditions in the body. Most Americans eat far too many acid generating foods and not enough alkaline foods. The American Dietetic Association recently released a study indicating that the average teenager consumes 3 to 6 cans of soda per day, and in doing so consumes 34 tablespoons of sugar per day as well! This is acid, acid, acid, and is a sure recipe for disaster at some time down the road if those habits stay the same. This same study also indicated that the average American barely consumes 2-3 servings of vegetables a week, usually from a can. Certainly not enough to maintain a healthy body PH!

What should we eat? Our diet should be about 75% vegetables and fruits, with a mix of lightly cooked, steamed and raw foods, (so that the enzymes are not destroyed in the cooking process.) The other 25% should be mostly protein foods such as chicken, fish, nuts and whole grains. This ratio will help to maintain good PH levels and good health.

PH TESTING

So now that you know what PH is, how do you test it? The testing procedures are very simple. First, we'll cover urine PH testing: You will need a booklet of PH testing paper to perform these tests, which can be purchased at Darnell Chiropractic or at most clinics certified to do B.E.S.T. adjusting. What you eat for supper is processed at night when you're sleeping, so test urine PH when you first get up in the morning.

1) For 3 nights in a row, eat as much protein as you can at the dinner meal. This will test your bodies ability to handle the acid from the protein. A healthy body should be able to handle this with no problems. 2) On the first morning urine output, after you have slept for the longest time, catch a small amount of urine in a cup. 3) Dip the testing strip into the cup and wait for the color to change on the paper. After the color changes, hold the strip up to the color chart that came with the paper and record the number above the color that matches your sample. This is the PH reading of your urine. Repeat the procedure for the second and third nights.

Saliva PH is tested by placing a small amount of saliva in a spoon and dipping the paper in the saliva. Again, record the number corresponding to the color on the paper. To challenge the body, next take a sip of lemon juice or other citrus juice in your mouth but do not swallow the juice! Let the juice sit in your mouth for 3 to 4 minutes, then discard it. Wait another 3 minutes for new saliva to come into your mouth, then take another sample of saliva into your spoon. Record the number above the color on the strip. Your done!

You should monitor your saliva PH monthly and urine PH every six months. More frequent testing is recommended if you have any serious health problems. Bring the results to a doctor certified in BEST technique for interpretation of the results.

THOUGHTS and STRESS

Everything we think affects our body in some way. We respond to the events in our lives with feelings and emotions. Without emotions, our lives would be meaningless. God gave us the ability to feel love as much as the ability to feel anger, or hate, or guilt. We choose how to respond to the events in our lives. When we feel love or positive emotions, it produces positive chemicals in the body. Likewise, when we feel hate or other negative emotions, it produces negative chemicals in the body.

According to much published research, the effects of the chemicals produced by stress and thoughts can affect health and more importantly cause disease. Health is a natural expression in the body. However, when disease occurs, there is always an underlying cause to that disease. Fortunately, B.E.S.T. Technique is a method of detecting when subconscious emotions and underlying causes are interfering with the body's natural healing ability. Through this technique, the interference can be removed so the body's natural healing process can occur.

Every response by our body is a response for survival, coordinated by the subconscious mind. Emotions such as fear, anger, and worry change the way the body functions. The body senses a threat to survival. Responding to this threat becomes top priority for the body. This is called the fight or flight response, in which the sympathetic nervous system becomes activated (also called sympathetic dominance) and the entire body gears itself to handle this threat. Nothing else takes higher priority when the body is in this state. Digestion shuts down. Even the immune system alters its function during this fight or flight response. When an experience is upsetting enough, the emotions we are feeling can become locked in the subconscious mind and the body can become "stuck" in this fight or flight response. Many people live every day locked in survival because of the strees they are feeling. The advanced procedures of B.E.S.T. technique are designed to detect when the body is locked in sympathetic dominance and remove the resulting interference in the body. For more information on chiropractic or B.E.S.T. procedures call Darnell Chiropractic for a free consultation at 303-543-1400.